I think perhaps with a different narrator I might well have got to the end, so perhaps the main issue for me was technical issues with the recording. Plots and settings are always shared and this one was chugging along okay. The story is reasonably well put together, and although parts of the plot reminded me a great deal of another book, I don't think it's fair to write it off it solely on that basis. Baldwin has a slight “catch” in her voice that I found quite endearing, and has a gentle tone that suited the book perfectly. I’m a scientist by profession, and found the narrative about drug development in the Amazon plausible enough to be inoffensive, but unlikely enough to remain interesting. I found myself deeply moved on more than one occasion.
Much like the dark, wide river where most of the story is staged, State of Wonder is gentle and beautiful, but has the ability to surprise and scare with its unexpected turns and frightening depth. There is so much to praise, but high on the list is Patchett’s creation of flawed characters I somehow managed to care deeply about. I rarely mourn the ending of a book (as I’m usually so excited to start the next!), but I was genuinely grief-stricken in the final few minutes of this book… I was thoroughly engaged from the very beginning and didn’t lose interest throughout. There is no interest in the deeper layers of anything - morality, love, the Amazon, the tribe, humanity, literature. I felt she had no idea what she was writing about, emotionally or scientifically or morally or from a strictly narrative point of view. I did not buy the love relationship I did not buy the guilt I intensely disbelieved the revealing discussion between the older and younger scientist on morals and science and staying on in the jungle. Written by Ann Patchett, it's a mishmash of doubtful science and implausible emotions mixed into a very creaky narrative.
Had it been written by Sandra Brown, whom I neither respect nor like, it would not have pretended to be something it's not. Had this been written by Barbara Kingsolver, whom I don't especially love, but do respect, this novel would have made sense from a narrative and logical and emotional point of view. I had liked Belcanto and so I went on and read another one by this Barbara Kingsolver-cum-Sandra Brown author.
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